High Genetic Heterogeneity in Chum Salmon in Western Alaska; the Contact Zone between Northern and Southern Lineages

Seeb LW and Crane PA. 1999. High Genetic Heterogeneity in Chum Salmon in Western Alaska; the Contact Zone between Northern and Southern Lineages. Transactions of the American Fisheries Society. 128:58-87

Genetic relationships among 64 spawning populations of chum salmon Oncorhynchus keta in western Alaska were studied using allele frequency data from 40 protein-encoding loci. Two major lineages of chum salmon inhabiting Alaska were detected using clustering and multidimesional scaling analyses of Cavalli-Sforza and Edward's chord distances. Populations of the northwest Alaska lineage occur in the largely unglaciated areas of Alaska north of the Alaska Penisula ( Beringia, the Beringian Refugium), and the Alaska Peninsula-Gulf of Alaska lineage occurs in the glaciated and unglaciated areas of he Alaska Peninsula, Kodiak Island, and southcentral Alaska. The two lineages come into contact in the 150-km area separating Herendeen Bay and Port Heiden on the northern Alaska Peninsula; this area may represent a major zoogeographic contact zone. Genetic data aso suggest the lineages come in contact in upper Cook Inlet; the population representing the Susitna River Drainage, which drains into Cook Inlet and the Gulf o f Alaska, shows affinity to the nortwest Alaska lineage. Genetic variability was higher in the Alaska Penisula-Gulf of Alaska lineage than in the northwest Alaska lineage. A comparison of allele frequency data collected in this study with data available for Pacific Rim populations suggests that populations of the Alaska Peninsula-Gulf of Alaska lineage were derived from Cascadia (the Pacific Refugium) and belong to a larger southern lineage, which includes populations from northwest Alaska appear to be derived from a northern lineage with affinities to Asian populations.

Type
Journal Article
Authors
Seeb, L; Crane, P
Units
ANIA , GLBA , KATM , KLGO , SEAN , SITK
Keywords
Breeding, British Columbia, Chinook Salmon, Chum Salmon, Diversity, heterogeneity, minisatellite DNA variation, Mitochondrial-DNA, Oncorhynchus keta, Origin, Pacific Northwest, Populations, Population-Structure, Salmonids, Spawners, Spawning, Species, stock identification, Susitna, Tshawytscha

Series

Browse the catalog